The Tyrone Police Department, like many other public safety agencies across the U.S., is now on Twitter.com.

Twitter's homepage describes their free service as follows: "Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?"

Members of the popular "microblogging" site create a profile and then post short (140 words or less) messages to keep their "followers" informed and updated. For police and public safety agencies, Twitter provides a method to get information out to a large audience and/or point them to more information about incidents, wanted persons, look outs, prevention tips, severe weather, and more very quickly. The messages can be viewed online or the public can join for free and setup text updates so that each new entry is instantly sent to their cellular phone.

The Dalton (GA) Police Department's use of Twitter as a communication tool was featured on Atlanta's Fox 5 News on March 15, 2009. That story can be viewed on the Fox 5 website.

Our supervisors in the field will have the ability to send updates to Twitter as events occur very soon, which will greatly improve our ability to keep our citizens safe and informed. For example, we typically receive severe weather alerts prior to their broadcast on the news. A sergeant can immediately log in to the site and post the information as it comes in, sending it to our "followers" online and also straight to their cell phones no matter where they are. If you're not watching the news or listening to the radio, that text message could save your life.

The TPD's Twitter page is located online at www.twitter.com/TyronePolice. Membership on Twitter.com is not required to view posts, but is required to sign up for text updates to your cell phone. While the service is free, your cellular carrier's regular text rates apply when receiving updates.

Please contact us with any questions or comments.